A
couple of days earlier, in common with other corporate news media, the
BBC pushed a manufactured story about Corbyn being
heckled at Gay Pride. The staged incident was also given significant
coverage on ITN and Sky News, and even front-page treatment in the
Guardian. In fact, as Craig Murray observed, the 'heckler' turned out to be Tom Mauchline
who works for the public relations firm Portland Communications.
Mauchline had also previously worked on the Liz Kendall
campaign for the Labour leadership. Portland's 'strategic counsel' is
the notorious Alastair Campbell, Blair's former media chief who helped
to sell
the illegal invasion-occupation of Iraq. None of this was spelled out in
the Guardian report by Heather Stewart, the paper's political editor. Instead, there was a single cryptic line that concealed more
than it delivered:
'Allies of the Labour leader said the confrontation at Pride had been staged by anti-Corbyn activists who were attempting to undermine the leader's position'.
There was no further explanation or context. When challenged on Twitter, Stewart responded:
'Story makes clear it was regarded as staged by Corbyn backers; but if part of plot to destabilise him it's news.'
This was a facile reply. Craig Murray himself then asked her:
'1) why does it not make clear that Mauchline is a PR man for Portland Comms? 2) How did you become aware of the story?'
As far as we can see, the Guardian's political editor simply ignored the awkward questions.
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